The invention relates to a tent or other sheltering device, consisting of a cloth of supple, sheet-like material and of at least one frame for stretching the sheet-like material, said frame being provided with at least one hub and with rods having high bending strength, said rods being hingably connected to the hub in a plane perpendicular to the hub, and being hingable relative to the hub beyond a dead center, at least a number of said rods connected at their free ends with the sheet-like material.
Such a tent is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,482. This patent describes a collapsible tent consisting of three side walls arranged at approximately right angles to each other and a top wall. Each panel consists of a rectangular or trapezoidal panel of tent cloth and a frame, connected with the cloth panel at its corners. Each frame consists of a hub and four frame rods hingable in a plane perpendicular to the hub, said frame rods being hingable and collapsible in a position parallel to each other and approximately perpendicular to the hub and being hingable from this position over an angle exceeding 90.degree. beyond a dead center in which the rods are in one plane. In this existing tent, stretchable cords have been attached along the edge forming the circumferential edge of each panel, which cords are tied together at the corners of the panel, such that an endless loop is formed around each panel, which is constantly under tensile stress, when the tent is erected.
An important drawback to the existing tent is that in larger sizes it is difficult to stabilize in strong winds. As panel sizes increase, the force applied to the exterior of the panel by a strong wind may exceed the erecting force that may be applied by a single worker from the inside, thereby allowing the frame and hub to push inward past the dead center, so that there is a significant risk of the tent collapsing. By tensioning the stretchable cords and tying them together, essentially only the corners of the tent cloth panel are pulled towards each other in circumferential direction, as a result of which the tent cloth between the corners will in fact sag.